Help them play

September 7 was a sad day for students at West Villages Elementary School.

Kathleen Szmit

WHAT IT WILL LOOK LIKE – A computer mock-up shows what the new playground at WVES might look like if the PTO is successful in raising funds.

WVES seeks to build new playground

September 7 was a sad day for students at West Villages Elementary School. That was the day their beloved playground was torn down, leaving a bare patch of dirt and relegating play to the school’s fields and blacktop areas.

The K-3 elementary school now needs a new playground and even has a model in mind, but they need the community’s help to make it happen.

According to Anke Rudy, secretary of the WVES PTO and parent of a WVES student, the previous playground structure was aged, its wood components falling apart. When it missed the mark on several key safety levels during an inspection, it was decided that the best course of action was to tear it down.

Unfortunately, Rudy said, that left the majority of WVES students without a playground structure. While there is a small set for the school’s youngest students, older students now play on the blacktop or the field area.

The PTO was inspired by the new playground structure at the adjacent Barnstable United Elementary, and created a playground committee, which has been holding myriad fundraisers for months.

This weekend, the committee will host the WVES Fall Tag Sale, during which visitors can stop in between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to peruse a host of goods. The proceeds from the sale will benefit the building of a new playground.

“We’re basically going to be fundraising through the end of the year,” Rudy said. “The PTO has taken ownership of the project.”

Rudy said that while the children are enjoying recesses filled with games and activities led by PTO and parent volunteers, seeing the shiny new playground structure just down the hill at BUES fills them with longing.

Contrary to popular belief, the schools do not share the playground.

While some might feel the students are fine weathering recess without a play apparatus, WVES Principal Kirk Gibbons noted that play structures nowadays are built with wellness in mind, and often include aspects that encourage the development of gross motor skills.

In order to help with fundraising, the playground committee created an account with the website gofundme (http://gofundme.com/wveplayground), and is selling bracelets and headbands in support of the cause.

The committee also met with several playground construction vendors during the summer months, and has chosen to work with Northeast Playground Builders, the same company that installed the BUES playground.

“The committee bantered back and forth around what would give the children the most options and bang for the buck,” said Gibbons.

“We felt [with NPB] we were getting more for our money,” Rudy said.

The estimated cost for the creation and installation of the new playground is roughly $100,000. While no funds were allocated during the district’s last budget season for a new WVES playground, the PTO and playground committee are hopeful that if they are able to raise a substantial amount of money, the school committee will vote to allocate funds when budget planning time comes around again.

“In terms of a fundraising deadline, the date in focus is the end of December,” said Gibbons.

That will allow for plans to be properly laid out, the grounds to be prepared and, ideally, the new structure built.

“Kids are kids,” Rudy said. “They can run around, but it’s a little sad and dreary out there. We’d love to put in a new playground in the spring.”